A honey tongue, a heart of gall, Is fancy's spring but sorrow's fall. Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses, Thy belt of straw, and ivy buds, [What should we talk of dainties, then, But could youth last, and love still breed ; But stay, honest * MOTHER.1 Well! I have done my song. anglers; for I will make Maudlin sing you one short song more. Maudlin! sing that song that you sung last night, when young Coridon the shepherd played so purely on his oaten pipe to you and your cousin Betty. MAUDLIN. I will, mother. PISCATOR. I married a wife of late, The more's my unhappy fate: But oh! the green sickness With those that go As all men know, And carry the milking-pail. Well sung, good woman; I thank you. VARIATION. I'll give 1This passage, the reply, and the following song, occur, for the first time, in the fifth edit. In the preceding editions, Piscator's commendation "Well sung," &c., is applied to the milkmaid's mother's answer. A song, entitled "The Bonny Milk Maid," in the same metre, is printed in Durfey's Pills to purge Melancholy, vol. i. 1719, 12mo. you another dish of fish one of these days; and then beg another song of you. Come, scholar! let Maudlin alone: do not you offer to spoil her voice. Look! yonder comes mine hostess, to call us to supper. How now! is my brother Peter come? HOSTESS. to hear that long to be at CHAP. V. On the Trout. Yes, and a friend with him. They are both glad you are in these parts, and long to see you; and supper, for they be very hungry. PISCATOR. WELL met, brother Peter! I heard you and a friend would lodge here to-night; and that hath made3 me to bring my friend to lodge here too. My friend is one that would fain be a brother of the angle: he hath been an angler but this day; and I have taught him how to catch a Chub, by dapping with a grasshopper; and the Chub he caught was a lusty one of nineteen inches long. But pray, brother Peter, who is your companion? PETER. Brother Piscator, my friend is an honest countryman, and his name is Coridon;5 and he is a downright witty companion, that met me here purposely to be pleasant and eat a Trout; and I have not yet wetted my line since we met together: but I hope to fit him with a Trout for his breakfast; for I'll be early up. PISCATOR. Nay, brother, you shall not stay so long; for look you here is a Trout will fill six reasonable bellies. 6 Come, hostess, dress it presently; and get us what other meat the house will afford; and give us some of your best barley-wine, the good liquor that our honest forefathers did use to drink of; the drink which preserved their health, and made them live so long, and to do so many good deeds. PETER. On my word, this Trout is perfect in season. Come, I thank you, and here is a hearty draught to you, and to all the brothers of the angle wheresoever they be, and to my young brother's good fortune to-morrow. I will furnish him with a rod, if you will furnish him with the rest of the tackling: we will set VARIATIONS. 2 long to see you, and are hungry, and long to be at supper.-Till 5th edit. 3 hath made me and my friend cast to lodge here too.-Till 5th edit. 4 grasshopper; and he hath caught a lusty one of nineteen inches long. But I brother, who is it that is your companion?-Till 5th edit. pray, Coridon, a most downright, witty, and merry companion, that met me here purposely to eat a Trout and to be pleasant, and I have not yet wet my line since I came from home but I will fit him to-morrow with a Trout for his breakfast, if the weather be anything like. Piscator. Nay, brother, you shall not delay him so long, for look you, here is a Trout. Till 5th edit. 6 Come, hostess, dress it presently, and get us what other meat the house will afford, and give us some good ale, and let's be merry.-1st edit 7 that our good honest forefathers used to drink of, which preserved, &c.-Till 5th edit. him up, and make him a fisher. And I will tell him one thing for his encouragement, that his fortune hath made him happy to be scholar to such a master; a master that knows as much, both of the nature and breeding of fish, as any man; and can also tell him as well how to catch and cook them, from the Minnow to the Salmon, as any that I ever met withal. PISCATOR. Trust me, brother Peter, I find my scholar to be so suitable to my own humour, which is to be free and pleasant and civilly merry, that my resolution is to hide nothing that I know from him. Believe me, scholar, this is my resolution; and so here's to you a hearty draught, and to all that love us and the honest art of Angling. VENATOR. Trust me, good master, you shall not sow your seed in barren ground; for I hope to return you an increase answerable to your hopes: but, however, you shall find me obedient, and thankful, and serviceable to my best ability. PISCATOR. 'Tis enough, honest scholar ! come, let's to supper. Come, my friend Coridon, this Trout looks lovely; it was twentytwo inches when it was taken; and the belly of it looked, some part of it, as yellow as a marigold, and part of it as white as a lily; and yet, methinks, it looks better in this good sauce. CORIDON. Indeed, honest friend, it looks well, and tastes well: I thank you for it, and so doth my friend Peter, or else he is to blame. PETER. Yes, and so I do; we all thank you: and when we have supped, I will get my friend Coridon to sing you a song for requital. CORIDON. I will sing a song, if anybody will sing another : else, to be plain with you, I will sing none. I am none of those that sing for meat, but for company: I say, ""Tis merry in hall, PISCATOR. I'll promise you I'll sing a song that was lately made, at my request, by Mr William Basse; one that hath made the choice songs of the "Hunter in his career," and of "Tom of Bedlam,”† and many others of note; and this, that I will sing, is in praise of Angling. A parody on the adage, i.e., when all are eating.-H. "It's merry in hall, When beards wag all." †This song, beginning "Forth from my sad and darksome cell," with the music to it, set by Hen. Lawes, is printed in a book entitled Playford's Antidote against Melancholy, |